Those politicians and officials in favour of ever-more surveillance will assure you that if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear.

But many politicians and officials – often the same ones urging greater powers of surveillance – want to weaken the freedom of information rights of the citizen against public bodies. It would seem politicians and officials need the “safe spaces” which they also wish to deny the citizen.

Of course, this is a contradiction: the politicians and officials cannot – at least not intellectually – have it both ways.

At base the debates about surveillance and freedom of information are about the relationship of the citizen and the “state” – who knows what about whom. And if politicians and officials want to know more about the citizens, then the same principle of transparency should first be applied to public activities.

After all, if politicians and officials have nothing to hide then they surely have nothing to fear.

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